Wyoming DEQ says industrial-siting impact-assistance reports create paperwork burden; recommends changing reporting trigger

Todd Parfit, director of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, told the Minerals Committee on behalf of the agency that the reporting framework for industrial-siting local impact assistance — enacted in 2022 — has produced many administrative problems for local governments and the state. “The key thing, I think, to to convey here is that all the distributions and expenditures have been consistent with the industrial siting council order and the legislation,” Parfit said. Jenny Staben, administrator working with the Industrial Siting Council, told the committee the statute requires reporting to begin one year after the permit order is issued, which produced roughly 80 county and municipal returns showing only $0 because construction — the event that triggers dispersal — often had not begun. “The disbursement of an impact assistance funds does not begin until construction starts,” Staben said. That timing mismatch, plus a form with automated fields that behaved inconsistently on different computers, led to widespread confusion, she said. DEQ reported 13 permits with application dates on or after July 1, 2022; three projects had started construction and only those three had actually received and dispersed impact-assistance funds. Of the 13 permitted projects, the agency said two were trona projects, four were wind projects, five were solar projects, one was a gold mine and one was a nuclear facility. The division described three projects that have dispersed funds. Anticline Wind (Natrona County) had a maximum impact-assistance amount of $3,300,000; local governments requested about 60% and the Industrial Siting Council granted 60%. Cedar Springs 4 (Converse and Natrona counties) had a $9,000,000 maximum; local governments requested about 60% but the council awarded about 44%. Cheyenne South Solar (Laramie County) had roughly $3,000,000 available; local governments requested 16% and the council awarded 16%. Staben described procedural changes made in 2024 to reduce later audit work: local governments now file prefiled testimony or written Q&A with exhibits before hearings and DEQ brings a line-item spreadsheet of every requested impact-assistance amount to the council hearing so awards can be edited live. Committee members and local representatives said timing and cash flow remain the principal complaints. Representative Campbell (House District 56) said municipalities in Natrona County have waited years for funds that arrived too late to avoid taking short-term loans and related interest costs. The committee heard that the Department of Revenue controls monthly releases once construction is reported to DEQ, and counties are responsible for passing funds on to towns; DEQ staff said there is no statutory deadline that forces counties to forward funds immediately to municipalities. DEQ recommended three statutory or administrative changes: 1) make reporting start when funds are actually disbursed rather than one year after permit issuance; 2) adopt a standardized, single annual deadline (for example, end of fiscal year) so local accounting cycles align; and 3) simplify and reissue the reporting form to remove brittle automation and clarify “reporting period” language. Staben also said DEQ will increase outreach and training to clerks and treasurers and send deadline reminders to local governments. Several legislators noted an earlier working group produced draft legislation last year to allow preauthorization or early release of funds in narrowly justified cases (for example, a municipality needing a fire engine before construction begins). Senator Larson said that draft remains available and could be revived if the committee chooses. No formal statutory changes were made at the hearing; the committee did ask DEQ and Representative Campbell to follow up with specific municipal examples for possible legislative language. The committee also requested DEQ provide the working-group draft and continue outreach to counties and towns to shorten lag time between state disbursement and municipal receipt.